After more than a century of pampering other people’s faces, Nivea is getting a makeover of its own. The German skincare brand tapped Swiss designer Yves Béhar, founder of Fuseproject, to create a “new global design language” based on its iconic blue tin. “Our early thinking was to reduce the complexity of the current form languages, edit the numerous packaging types to a minimum set, and eliminate the proliferation of logo variations and typographic expression,” Béhar told Fast Co.Design on Tuesday.

NEW LOOK

But tackling Nivea’s graphic identity was only the beginning. Béhar and his team also designed a new bottle that, by nature of its shape, is both lighter and stronger than previous iterations. Although thinner walls equals 15 percent less plastic, the stronger structural shape maintains the bottle’s durability. Another plus? Because the bottle was designed to fit tighter on the wood pallets that carry Nivea products to the store, Béhar said the redesign will save at least 12,600 pallets and 585 tons of carbon emissions per year.

Béhar also designed a new bottle that is both lighter and stronger than previous iterations.

“It doesn’t happen very often that we, as designers, get to work on things that are on supermarket shelves in 170 countries and affect 500 million women,” Béhar added. “So if we change the amount of plastic used in each bottle by 15 percent, if we simplify the logistics, if we can put more of these bottles on a pallet, then we’re in a much better place.”